<p>Ahaha, I think that might have something to do with the “professional, business-grade” nature of the Thinkpads. Probably won’t be good if everyone during a board meeting is playing some Battlefield Bad Company 2.</p>
<p>But enough of off topic-ness. </p>
<p>@OP: If you like or can live with the body of the Thinkpad, you should definitely consider the machines. As others have said, they’re definitely great machines with excellent build quality, probably one of the best Windows-based laptops out there.</p>
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<p>The only thing I can think of are those machines who are hooked up to the stock market and predict trends. Beyond that, I don’t see any reason why a business person would require an i3. For an Engineering major, however, I think an i3 or even an i5 would be necessary for CAD designing/rendering.</p>
<p>yup. I ordered one of them thinkpad edge 14 (core i3 m370 2.40 Ghz :D). The price was originally $584 for the non-customized unit (coupons added). But then, I chose a 9 cell battery as oppose to standard 6 cell, which cost $50 extra. After shipping and taxes, I (my dad) paid $677, which is way more than $500. :(</p>
<p>This thinkpad better last me 5+ years.</p>
<p>There was another great deal with the lenovo G412. That one was a bit cheaper, actually. But after doing research, I found 5 pages worth of posts about people complaining about the touch pad, and how idiotic it is to incorporate the 2 buttons along with the touch screen. That would have been good deal also I think.</p>
<p>I’m chemical engineering major, and I hate everything about designing reactors. I think the most intense apps that are remotely relevant are 3d models of co-polymer materials or proteins, which are designated to the powerful desktops in the labs.</p>
<p>Does this mean I purchased a too powerful computer for my regular needs?</p>
<p>That is an amazing deal! That easily could have been $800+ from any other PC manufacturer!</p>
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<p>For your regular needs, yes, but I’m pretty sure that you’ll end up running modeling programs throughout your college career on your laptop anyways. Depending on what kind of machines your school uses, the modeling may be slower, but I’m pretty sure there’ll be times when you just need to model immediately on your laptop.</p>
<p>hang on, r31. You use a UL30A? How is that working out, just curious.</p>
<p>I looked up the passmark for my current desktop’s CPU, and the SU7300 would run almost twice as fast. Makes me wonder if I had sacrificed mobility and battery life for nothing.</p>
<p>Excellent laptop. I can’t game on it, but I can still do all my school functions + photoshop + music + video on it. I also swapped out the harddrive for a 32 GB SSD (did so on my own) so I don’t have to worry about HDD shock when moving around, and have my battery life at 10 hours without any video. My GF has the same laptop (adding in an SSD for her soon as well) and she loves it, and we’ve had our laptops for a year or so now.</p>
<p>However, seeing as how you’re a chem engineering major, I think you made the right choice going for the i3 instead. The Thinkpad may not be as light and mobile, but Lenovo makes fine machines and I have a huge feeling you’ll need the extra power down the road.</p>